Nice to see Roger Moore peering over Eric’s shoulder. Roger is a family friend, and became a regular guest star of David Pugh’s and Kenneth Branagh’s The Play What I Wrote (2002), a stage tribute to Morecambe & Wise. Roger told me that one of his deepest regrets was having been unavailable to appear on any of Eric and Ernie’s Christmas shows, because it always clashed with his work commitments on the James Bond films. – GM

Eric and Ernie rehearse one of their famous flat sketches for an edition of their Thames TV shows.

Tommy Cooper, Eric and Ernie suddenly find they have company. In the bar at Thames with TV producers/directors and ‘talent’. L-TO-R Robert Reed, Tommy Cooper, Dennis Kirkland, Eric, Philip Jones, Ernie, Max Bygraves, David Clark, Malcolm Morris, John Ammonds and Peter Frazer-Jones. – GM

One of the last, if not the last, TV interviews that Eric gave was on an edition of Good Morning Britain, which aired on the ITV breakfast station, TV-am. This footage has since been lost; however, amazingly, this time-coded still has survived. – GM

Iconic skip-dancing poses by Eric and Ernie’s scarily realistic waxworks. These were designed in 2011 for the permanent Madame Tussaud’s exhibition in Blackpool, Lancashire.

The opening scene from their somewhat disappointing final outing together, their film Night Train to Murder.

Eric puffs on his pipe reflectively during a break from filming. He saw it shortly before his untimely death and remarked, ‘It was not what we set out to make.’ – GM

Eric and Ernie doing one of their in-front-of-tabs routines, this time with Hannah Gordon. – GM

Eric and Ernie separated by Thames TV Head of Light Entertainment, Philip Jones, long-time friend and great admirer of Eric and Ernie. He was part of the attraction for Eric and Ernie finally to depart the BBC and take their shows to Thames TV in 1978. – GM

Eric and Ernie take a break from taping a musical number for one of their Thames TV shows.

Eric and Ernie pose with the actress Gemma Craven on set.

Eric and Ernie (and Charlie, the dummy) doing their vent routine in an episode of The Sweeney, starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. Prior to this, Thaw and Waterman had appeared very successfully in a Morecambe & Wise Christmas show. A return invitation duly arrived – one presumes so The Sweeney could get their revenge on the double act. – GM

Taken during a break from filming the only modern-day scene in Night Train to Murder.

The double act of Mike and Bernie Winters was considered Eric and Ernie’s competition. Contrary to popular belief, the four men were firm friends. As a child I recall summer seasons where Morecambe & Wise appeared down the road from Mike and Bernie Winters. My father would take me along with him in the afternoon so he could go and have a chat with them. One of Eric’s best, if cruellest, jokes was when a BBC radio interviewer asked him what he and Ernie would have been if not comedians, and Eric answered, ‘Mike and Bernie Winters!’ – GM

Eric with the presenter Mavis Nicholson.

The adorable Suzanne Danielle obviously had an effect on Eric and his cigarette holder during a routine for an edition of one of Morecambe & Wise’s Thames TV shows back in 1981. – GM

Rare photos of Eric and Ernie on the set of Denis Norden’s Thames TV nostalgia show, Looks Familiar.